6 Tips To Avoid Aches And Injuries For Baby Boomers

Baby boomers who see the signs of age upon their bodies often try to do too much exercise too fast and end up injuring themselves. It’s tough to pace yourself especially when you remember the times when your body could land that ball or do a fast serve over the net without breaking a sweat. Pushing your body beyond its limits now however might just lead to injuries.

Here are some tips to help you stay fit and get your exercise without injuring yourself.

1) Take it easy and go slow. Many doctors are seeing baby boomers who haven’t exercised for months go out and play a tennis game at 100 percent intensity. Instead of starting out at full blast begin with a consistent exercise routine that improves your body’s fitness level gradually. Just do what you can now instead of shooting for what you could do a couple of years ago.

2) It’s a good idea to adopt the 10 percent rule formulated by the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. Whatever form of exercise you engage in, don’t increase your activity levels by more than 10 percent a week.

3) How much extra weight do you have? If you are carrying around another extra twenty to thirty pounds then all that weight is going to put more stress on your joints when you exercise. To avoid injuries adopt a fitness program that decreases your weight while improving your fitness level. This helps prevent injury.

4) Pay close attention to your body. Don’t ignore warning twinges or aches and pains until they become serious full-blown problems. Check with your doctor if you’ve pulled a muscle or have a nagging pain. You may need to strengthen certain areas of your body or require specific physical therapy for that problem.

5) Pay attention to technique. It’s important to do exercises well rather than just focusing on the number of repetitions alone. Lots of baby boomer related injuries happen because of taking a wrong step due to the wrong technique.

6) Ditch the cigarettes. Smoking hampers fast healing and is an additional risk factor in certain types of injuries such as rotator cuff tears.

A good exercise program will get you fit, help you maintain a healthy body weight, avoid injuries and best of all give you the ability to recover fast from any illness or injury.

Tags: avoid exercise injuries, baby boomers, Exercise, exercise injuries, Weight Loss